


Eight Steps Ahead

by JaneTurenne



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-28
Updated: 2012-05-28
Packaged: 2017-11-06 03:39:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/414303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaneTurenne/pseuds/JaneTurenne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Professor?” asks Ace, with a raised brow.  “She a friend of yours?”</p>
<p>“I’m sure I don’t know,” says the Doctor, hanging up his umbrella.  “Are you a friend of mine, Miss Song?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eight Steps Ahead

“Rrrrrrrriver Song… Never heard of you.” The Doctor tosses the card over his shoulder and ambles back into his TARDIS. He is vaguely startled to find that the woman who was behind him a moment ago has beaten him inside.

“Darling, what _are_ you thinking with that jumper?” she sighs. “Ah, well, easily enough mended. Come with me, I’ll soon have it off.”

“Professor?” asks Ace, with a raised brow. “She a friend of yours?”

“I’m sure I don’t know,” says the Doctor, hanging up his umbrella. “Are you a friend of mine, Miss Song?”

“ _Doctor_ Song. And as for the rest…” She grins. “…Spoilers.”

“Spoilers?” the Doctor asks.

“Oh yes.”

“Meaning you’re not going to tell me?”

“Precisely.”

“ _Spoilers_? From _me_?”

“Absolutely.” River props her elbows on the console and leans forward. “Doesn’t it just _kill_ you not being the one eight steps ahead for once?”

Ace laughs. “I think I like her. Can we keep her, Doctor? Please?”

“My real name.” The Doctor addresses himself to River, rather than Ace. “Now I know I’m in trouble.”

“That isn’t your real name,” says River, softly.

The Doctor’s eyes flash, just for a moment, and his face undergoes a slow metamorphosis, settled yet tense. “You are a riddle wrapped in an enigma, Doctor River Song,” he says.

“I sound like just your sort of woman, then, don’t I?”

River and the Doctor stare at each other for one long moment more. “Close the door, Ace,” says the Doctor, his smile echoing River’s smirk of triumph. “I feel a new adventure coming on.”


End file.
